Idols in Japan

It's always nice to know that even almost ten years since the death of a great musician, people still admire him. In a guitar shop in Tennouji, there are guitars made to look (and sound, of course) just like famous musicians' guitars. In the photo are two Fernandes Mockingbirds modeled after hide's (of X Japan fame) guitars. For a while a lot of models of his guitars were made, especially after he passed away in 1998, but over the years the different kinds sold have dwindled down to the two most popular, shown here. Other famous guitarist models the store sold were Imai Hisashi of Buck Tick's guitar and Ken from L'Arc en Ciel's guitar.
Here is a link to hide's official website, where you can order the guitars shown here: http://www.hide-city.com/


This is the Gundam building in Den Den Town. Pretty much any Gundam series is guaranteed to be popular among youth in Japan, but of course, some do better than others. The store sells a huge range of models, costumes, and just about anything else you can think of relating to the Gundam shows.

Mannequins in Japan (or Blog Essay #1)

A post writtin in the blog "Visual Anthropology of Japan" concerning the end of summer in Japan had something in it that caught my interest.

Mannequins in Japan, for the most part, look like Western people. The photo in the blog post displays a typical looking family in yukata, ready for a festival. There is a mother, a father, a son, and a daughter. The strange thing is that none of them even have black hair. They look like mannequins straight out of a Dillard's department store in the States. I suppose most people don't even think twice about what mannequins look like, but think about it for a second.

If you're Japanese and you live in Japan, wouldn't you expect to see Japanese mannequins displaying clothes in stores?

It seems to me that Japanachived Westernization a long time ago, but really, Western mannequins take things to a whole new level to me. I'm not saying that all mannequins in Japan should look Japanese, but it is unusual that a group of mannequins displaying traditional Japanese clothing would look so un-Japanese.

The original post can be found at: http://visualanthropologyofjapan.blogspot.com/2007/08/some-summer-images.html

Dotonbouri, Osaka

Obviously, I fixed the photo problem. I was using Photobucket to upload pictures, but now I'm just doing it directly from Blogger. Anyway, this is a photo of a restaurant called the Kani Dojo (Crab Dojo) in Dotonbouri, Osaka. It's been around for a long time and is often referenced in Japanese pop-culture, especially anime and movies set in Osaka. The crab above the doorway is mechanical; its legs and eyes are constantly moving around.

As for this monstrosity, this is the Don Kihote store, which is one street over from the Kani Dojo. Really, it's just a huge store full of junk, a lot like a dollar store, only much, much bigger. The glowing rings around the mascot of the store are actually part of a ferris wheel that can be accessed from inside of the store. Don Kihote sells all sorts of things are fairly affordable prices, and if you're looking for something ridiculous, you're guaranteed to find it there.